This site is a set of connected research tools. Start with coaching lineage, compare team trajectories, trace the life of a trade, or search the transaction archive.
Explore how NBA head coaches connect through documented assistant relationships and historical branches.
Compare one-to-ten-season franchise trajectories against the closest historical analogs since 1950–51.
Follow what a team sent out, what came back, and how picks and players transformed through downstream moves.
Search the historical trade archive by teams, players, draft capital, counterparties, timing, and structure.
A coach is connected to the first National Basketball Association head coach under whom Basketball Reference lists that coach as an assistant.
A coach begins a new tree if Basketball Reference does not list that coach as a National Basketball Association assistant before their first head-coaching appointment, unless one of the following exceptions applies.
A former player is connected to the coach they played for throughout their entire National Basketball Association career if they had no assistant-coaching experience before becoming a head coach.
Applies to: George Mikan, Jim Pollard, Bill Russell, and Tom Heinsohn.
A coach is connected through their first professional assistant position if that position was in the American Basketball Association, the head coach they worked under also coached in the National Basketball Association, and the assistant later became a National Basketball Association head coach.
If the head coach never coached in the National Basketball Association, the assistant begins a new tree.
Applies to: Doug Moe and Del Harris.
For a player-coach, the connection is determined by the lead executive listed by Basketball Reference for the season in which the appointment was made.
If that executive had previously been a National Basketball Association head coach, the player-coach joins the executive’s coaching tree. Otherwise, the player-coach begins a new tree.
Applies to: Dave Cowens, Bill Russell, Carl Braun, and Walt Budko.
Curated stories can appear when you pause near an important part of the forest or choose Featured story.
Career totals and season records are sourced from the Basketball Reference Coach Register and the linked coach profiles. Portraits come from Basketball Reference coach profiles and Wikimedia Commons. Each available portrait links to its source; Commons creator and license information is preserved with the coach record. Image rights remain with their respective owners and creators.